Thinkering Studio - Grade Levels

Overview

Design, Make, Remix, Hack, Create, Build, Program, Craft, Etc.

Welcome to the Thinkering Studio. Thinkering Studio is a collaborative space/class/studio for students to:

• explore questions, challenges, topics or technologies of interest, at their own pace, and in directions of their choosing
• collaborate informally and formally, in person and electronically, synchronously and asynchronously
• plan and reflect on their creations, processes, successes, difficulties, and learning through a multimodal journal and portfolio
• create footsteps, examples, resources, or other artifacts for themselves & others who might follow
• integrate technology as appropriate
• (think 3M, Bell Labs, Google's 20% time, Apple's Blue Sky program, etc.)

5th Grade

• Ungraded
• Journal - bulleted plans from beginning of year
  • Effort & Achievement - Effort added Q3 and Achievement Q4
  • Weekly plan includes SMART goals
• Reflections - 1 per month
• Proposals - for every new project
• Portfolio - adds 1 project and 1 reflection per marking period
• Peer critiques - monthly - sharing followed by questions
• Mini-Lessons
  • When have you discovered for yourself or taught yourself something? (Inside or outside of school)
  • How is learning how to play soccer, play an instrument, learn English, learn a language at school, write a story, etc. similar/different?
  • Using the documentation and reflection prompts for journal ideas (end of first month)
  • What is failure? How can failure be beneficial? How do you overcome failures?
    • Are there levels of failure?
    • What is a smart failure?
    • If you achieve an "Epic Fail," have you learned more than most people who easily succeed or succeed by following a "recipe"?
  • Creating and curating a learning portfolio (end of Q1)
  • Marzano's Effort and Achievement Rubric (starting Q3)

6th Grade

• Ungraded
• Journal - plans and effort & achievement weekly
• Reflections - every other week
• Proposals - for every new project
• Peer critiques - monthly for first marking period, every other week for 2nd-4th marking periods
• Portfolio - adds 1 project and 1 reflection per marking period
• Mini-Lessons
  • What are some general strategies to learn something? Which do you seem to prefer? What are some things that make it harder to learn? How do different technologies help/hinder your learning?
  • How do you know when to stop/give up on a project? What is grit? Perseverance? (see habit 1)
  • Providing critical feedback (end of first month)
  • Consumption versus Production discussion - Q4

7th Grade

• Graded
• Journal - plans and effort & achievement weekly
• Reflections - every other week
• Proposals - for every new project
• Peer critiques - every other week
• Portfolio - adds 1 project and 1 reflection per marking period
• Mini-Lessons
  • Can anyone else actually teach you anything? "I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think." Socrates
  • Reflection Rubric

8th Grade

• Graded
• Journal - plans and effort & achievement weekly
• Reflections - every other week
• Proposals - for every new project
• Peer critiques - every other week
• Portfolio - adds 1 project and 1 reflection per marking period
• Final reflection/letter
• Mini-Lessons
  • add